And the next day, before I arrived at the motor pool, I had a new squad leader. Well, I wasn’t really new to his squad seeing as how I was cycled through all five squads. I was considered a good soldier and a hard worker, so I pretty much could go to any squad I wanted, but Sergeant Birden picked me up. He was a couple of years older than me. A white guy with freckles and skinny as a toothpick and not much taller than me. We called him Bird Man since Iraq; only soldiers that went overseas with him could call him that. We were close, almost as close as me and Shane were. I remained in his line for my last five months until I E.T.S’d out. We passed one another and he looked like he had something to say. Or maybe I should’ve, but it just felt awkward between the both of us. All the while I acted as though I never even met Shane. I heard him and Bazz settled differences and were friends again. Bazz kept in touch and kept me in the loop about what they’d find the more they looked into what Auron said.
